Organizing a function, especially on a large scale, is challenging. Among the challenges an organizer may face is the inability to communicate timely and efficiently with participants once invitations have been issued or the event has been announced. For example, the time or venue of a function may not be finalized at the time invitations are sent. Another example is that there may be unforeseen changes or last minute corrections to important event details such as the function's location or start time.
If the organizer has the mobile number or other numbers of the guests, the organizer may call to inform them of the changes. The organizer may have the correct numbers, but if the calls are not answered, or certain participants do not review voicemail messages, then those participants will not receive the change information. Moreover, it may be a very big and time consuming task to contact participants whether by mobile unit or telephone, especially if the number of expected guests or participants is large. Even if the task is undertaken, the change information may not reach the participants in time given the nature of the communication medium.
Another problem that limits calling as a method for communicating last minute changes is that many participants want to keep their communication numbers private or at least limited to a small circle. These participants are reluctant to pass on telephone numbers and especially mobile numbers. For functions other than those that are family or friend oriented, and especially for larger business-type functions, the organizer may not be able to collect mobile number information from potential participants. Their concerns may include the worry that the organizer would pass on the mobile numbers to third parties. These third parties may make use of such mobile numbers in ways considered undesirable participants such as solicitation calls, robo-calls, etc.
Another concern about giving away a mobile number is the potential cost of that action. Calls by an organizer and third parties may result in the owner of the account associated with that mobile number being charged for the calls. A person on a budget or who otherwise desires to minimize communication charges may not want to give up his or her mobile number to an organizer at all or at least not without assurance that such action will not result in additional charges to his or her mobile account.
The problem faced by an organizer in collecting mobile or telephone numbers is exacerbated when the text message number is the same as the participant's mobile number. Many people reserve text messaging only to family, close friends, and/or business or work colleagues. The nature of text messaging is among the reasons for keeping such numbers private. The participant of a text message typically considers review of such a message a high priority. The text message may report an emergency such as the sudden illness of a child at school, a friend's accident, or the urgent need to immediately report to work. To limit the receipt of text messages to the most urgent circumstances, the participants or invitees to a function may be very, very reluctant to submit their texting numbers to the organizer and the possible further (undesired) dissemination of that number to third parties.
Even those participants who do not treat the receipt of a text message with urgency do not desire generally to have their text message mailbox crammed full of spam. Another concern in revealing a texting number is that such revelation may lead to text messages that are scams and whose distribution is referred to as “smishing” of “phishing via text message”. Both participants who severely restrict texting to family and friends, and participants who use texting more widely certainly do not appreciate the extra expense texting from third parties may cause. Nobody likes to pay for spam.
Referring to other methods of communication, the organizer may use electronic mail (email) to communicate change information. The organizer may relatively quickly disseminate the change information to participants via email, but only if the organizer has such addresses. Even so, the organizer may not have enough time to send all of the emails or the emails may not be viewed on a timely basis. Participants may not have access to or may not choose to access their email accounts close in time to the start of the function. For example, participants may be driving on their way to the function and without email access. Without accessing their email accounts, the participants will not receive the information about the changes.
Instead of email, an organizer may use a micro-blogging service such as Twitter® to communicate changes to a function. Twitter® users may send and receive text-based messages of up to 140 characters. Each such message is known as a Tweet®. The organizer of a function with last minute changes may send a Tweet® with change information to participants.
Tweeting about changes to a function, like calling participants or sending them emails, is problematic. The use of Twitter® shares the same type of problems posed by calling or emailing participants such as being unable to reach participants in a timely manner, and the participants having to timely check their Twitter® accounts in order to receive the information.
Twitter® also poses its own set of problems for the organizer of a function and its participants or invitees. For an organizer, he or she has to have thought ahead to obtain the Twitter® name of each participant or the organizer will be faced with a big task in finding such names. Typically, it is unusual for an organizer to have that information for functions that are not family or friend oriented. The organizer may be able to search for Twitter® names by using the actual names of the participants or invitees, but that search expands the task of communicating the changes to a degree that the Twitter® search/communication may not be worth the effort. Also, there may be Twitter® users with names common or very close to the names of the participants or invitees. Whether the organizer has the Twitter® names or uses the actual names of the guests, the organizer faces a big task in tweeting out the change information especially if there are a lot of participants and invitees.
Another problem for the organizer in the use of Twitter® to send out change information is that a Tweet® is limited to 140 characters. That may not be enough for an organizer to clearly communicate the details of the changes in function information.
In some cases, the organizer may not want to use Twitter® because the problems its use may generate. Twitter® messages are public. That may be a big problem if the organizer does not want people who have not been invited to the function to see the change information. For example, a Tweet® about changes to a celebrity wedding may result in attendance by people who have not been invited.
Further making the use of Twitter® problematic is the way its use may be viewed by participants or invitees to the function. To receive the change information via Tweet®, a participant has to be a user of Twitter®. Participants or invitees to a function may not want to join Twitter® just to receive change information. Even if a participant uses Twitter and regularly checks his or her tweets, he or she may not be a Twitter® follower of the particular function or the organizer. In that case, the participant would not receive the organizer's Tweet® with the change information.
Various privacy issues also may concern participants in an organizer's use of Twitter® for communication. One type of privacy concern is referred to herein as “activity privacy”. A participant or invitee to a function may not want others to know of his or her participation. For example, an employee of Company A may not want his or her superiors at Company A to know that the employee plans to attend a recruiting a function sponsored by Company B. As another example, an invitee to a stag party or bachelorette party might not want those friends and family members who condemn, scorn or would make fun of such functions to learn of the invitee's participation. If the organizer uses Twitter® to communicate with participants, a particular participant's attendance (and/or other information) may become known to those he or she does not want to know the information.
Another kind of privacy concern that a participant may have relating to an organizer's use of Twitter® is referred to herein as “identity privacy”. Some participants or invitees to a function may be concerned about personal information such as full name, address, birth date, account numbers, and personal identification numbers becoming known through third parties' access to Twitter® messages. Twitter® acknowledges that it collects personal information about its users and shares such personal information with third parties. A participant may be annoyed or even outraged at the organizer for making such personal information vulnerable via Twitter®.
Of the types of communications discussed above for communicating last minute change information to a participant, a text message may be optimal but for the risks associated with revealing the participant's texting number to the organizer. As stated, those risks may include the further dissemination of the texting number to unauthorized or unknown third parties. Such third parties may use the texting number to send the participant frivolous messages, obscene messages, unwanted sales and subscription pitches, and/or messages that may expose the participant to scams. Moreover, such unwanted messages may increase the participant's telecommunications costs. Thus, there is a need for a way for the participant to receive updates on last minute changes to functions and other late-breaking information without having to reveal his or her texting number.
The problems of an organizer of a function in communicating last minute changes to participants have been used as an example. Others share these problems in many different circumstances, especially where such last minute communications may be vital. For example, a soccer team manager may need to quickly distribute information about cancellation of a game. A surprise birthday planner may desire to keep details about a surprise party secret until the very last minute, and needs a way to communicate such details to invitees. An employer may need to let employees know of a last minute staffing schedule change. An airline may need to communicate a change in gate for arrival or departure of a particular flight. Many other examples may be provided.
In sum, there is a need for a way to disseminate information, especially last minute information, via text message from the originator of the substance of the message to a participant, without the originator learning the texting number of the participant.